The marginal breakdown and subsequent recurrence of secondary caries are the most serious problem facing the usage of dental amalgam today. According to Jorgensen's equation, the prevailing amalgam fillings are broken down even though some of them were having the required tensile strength. It is noted that all the available tensile strength data were from specimens tested in air at room temperature, neglecting its service condition of highly corroding environment and higher temperature. However, it is known that the tensile strength of brittle materials is much lower if the testing media is in solution rather than in air. The strength usually decreases with increase in temperature. Therefore, it is quite possible that the tensile strength of dental amalgam is much lower in service condition. Thus, the effect of temperature and testing media on the conventional and diametral tensile strength will be the first task in the proposal. Two additional projects directed toward improving the tensile strength of amalgam are proposed. The first project is to increase the cohesion of grain boundary of matrix phases by surface-treating the alloy particles, such as cleaning. The second project is intended to disrupt the continuous network of the weak gamma 2 phase by heat- treating the amalgam mix after trituration. During mastication, the amalgam restoration should sustain different rates of loading. Thus, the deformation characteristics of the dental amalgam as affected by loading rate will be another topic of interest concerning environment in the present investigation.